Next story in Space

NASA revealed new agreements with three private spaceflight
companies today (Aug. 3) — deals that total $1.1 billion in
funding support for new commercial spaceships to launch American
astronauts into space.

The new deals represent the final round of NASA's Commercial
Crew integrated Capability program (CCiCap), which
aims to foster the design and development of new
private spaceships to fill the current gap in U.S. human
spaceflight capabilities.

As part of the new agreements, Sierra Nevada will receive $212.5
million, SpaceX will receive $440 million, and Boeing will
receive $460 million. Boeing and SpaceX are developing private
space capsules, with Sierra Nevada taking a different path with
its winged Dream
Chaser space plane design.

NASA retired its 30-year space shuttle
program last year and is currently dependent on Russia's
Soyuz spacecraft to ferry Americans to the International Space
Station. The space agency's latest deal with Russia's Federal
Space Agency carries a cost per seat of about $63 million. Once
commercial spaceships are proven to be safe and reliable, NASA
intends to purchase flights for astronauts to and from the space
station.

"Our commercial crew and cargo efforts are based on a simple but
powerful principle," Bolden said in a televised announcement. "By
investing in American companies and American ingenuity we are
spurring commercial companies to deliver more bang for the buck."

Between now and May 31, 2014, the companies funded under the
CCiCap agreements will further develop and test their spacecraft
designs. NASA expects that, following the successful completion
of these milestones, manned demonstration flights to low-Earth
orbit should launch by the middle of the decade.

"For 50 years American industry has helped NASA push boundaries
enabling us to live, work and learn in the unique environment of
microgravity and low Earth orbit," William Gerstenmaier,
associate administrator for human exploration and operations at
NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "The
benefits to humanity from these endeavors are incalculable. We're
counting on the creativity of industry to provide the next
generation of transportation to low Earth orbit and expand human
presence, making space accessible and open for business."
[ Video:
Private Space Taxis for Astronauts ]

Diverse spaceship options

NASA officials said that the CCiCap selections fund a diverse
group of commercial spacecraft designs, with each company taking
a unique approach to its spacecraft design. Each of the three
companies winning awards must pay their own share of spacecraft
testing and development, space agency officials said.

"What that means to the tax payer is that NASA is not paying 100
percent of this development cost," said Ed Mango, manager of
NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "They are also bringing money to
the table."

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane is a reusable winged
spacecraft designed to launch seven astronauts into low-Earth
orbit. The spacecraft will launch on an Atlas 5 rocket and lift
off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and is an evolution of a former
NASA test vehicle known as the HL-20.

Dream Chaser will launch vertically and land on NASA's Shuttle
Landing Facility runway, but can be retargeted to use airport
runways in case of an emergency or different mission, said Phil
McAlister, director of NASA's commercial spaceflight development.
Sierra Nevada has a list of nine milestones to meet in order to
receive all $212.5 million of its award. The company is aiming
for its first manned test flight by 2016.

"We're very pleased today to receive the award from NASA as
a recognition of our work. We think the whole program is a very
successful public-private partnership," Mark Sirangelo, head of
Sierra Nevada Corporation's Space Systems, told reporters after
NASA's announcement.

New space capsules

SpaceX, meanwhile, is upgrading its unmanned Dragon
space capsule to carry seven astronauts on round-trip
flights to the International Space Station. Like the robotic
Dragon capsule, which made its first trip to the station in May,
the crewed Dragon will launch on SpaceX's own Falcon 9 rocket
from the company's launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station in Florida.

McAlister said SpaceX plans to land the Dragon capsule on land
(the unmanned capsule that flew in May made an ocean splashdown),
but the drop zone for the manned vehicle has not yet been
decided. While SpaceX officials are targeting a crewed test
flight of 2015 (a date based on optimum funding and successful
testing), NASA is anticipating operational manned flights by
2017, McAlister added. [ Inside
SpaceX's Manned Dragon Capsule (Infographic) ]

SpaceX is led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and already
has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide unmanned Dragon
flights to the space station for cargo deliveries. To receive its
full $440 million award, SpaceX will have to complete 14
different milestones, including two demonstration flights (one on
Earth, the other in flight) to test the Dragon capsule's launch
abort system.

Musk said called NASA's funding announcements today a "decisive
milestone for human spaceflight." In a teleconference with
reporters, he said SpaceX is still studying how the launch abort
system tests will be performed, but they will be webcast and
televised live.

"These are going to be some exciting tests," Musk said. "We
anticipate some really exciting stuff in the American space
program in the years ahead."

Boeing, meanwhile, is developing its own
CST-100 space capsule, a seven-person vehicle that will
launch into space atop an Atlas 5 rocket and make a land
touchdown, McAlister said. The company is aiming to make its
first crewed test flight in 2016.

"We come at this from a position of knowledge and experience,"
said John Mulholland, program manager of Boeing Commercial
Programs within Boeing's space exploration division. "We have
that experience we're able to use as we incoporate these
approaches and streamline capabilities to make sure we're not
sacrificing anything on crew safety or mission success. It give
us a leg up on other competitors who don't have that experience
base."

Boeing's CST-100 design won the biggest slice of CCiCap funding,
but also has the most milestones to meet. In order to receive the
full $460 million award, Boeing must complete 19 different
milestones, McAlister said. The last milestone on that list is a
complete critical design review of the entire CST-100 space
capsule and Atlas 5 rocket launch system — a major feat, he
added.

"We're really excited about today's announcement [and] certainly
appreciate the confidence expressed by NASA in selecting us,"
said John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing
Space Exploration. "In 1916, Bill Boeing started the Boeing
Company, and we've obviously grown into a large company since
then, have learned a lot over that time, and are applying that
knowledge to what we're doing on commercial crew. And it will be
really sweet to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the company
with the first crewed flight of the CST-100."

Unfunded agreements possible

Seven different companies entered NASA's CCiCap competition.
Three of them failed to meet NASA's basic requirements for
consideration, while the fourth — Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, of
Utah — came in just behind the top three selected, Gerstenmaier
said.

ATK is the company that built the reusable solid rocket boosters
for NASA's space shuttle launches. With the shuttle program
retired, the company is developing a private rocket called
Liberty in partnership with the European company EADS Astrium.
The
Liberty rocket and space capsule will use a five-segment
solid rocket booster and European upper stage to launch a crewed
space capsule into low-Earth orbit.

The capsule could ferry crews or cargo to the International Space
Station, ATK officials have said. During NASA's previous
commercial crew program round, ATK had an unfunded agreement with
the space agency to use the agency's expertise while developing
the Liberty rocket and spacecraft.

McAlister said NASA is open to possible unfunded agreements in
the new commercial crew program round, but private space
companies like ATK must make their own decisions on whether they
want to enter such an arrangement.

Also not included in this latest round of funding is
Blue Origin of Kent., Wash., a company owned by Amazon
founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos that is developing private
spacecraft for suborbital and orbital flights. The company did
receive a NASA funding award in 2011 for its orbital crew
vehicle, but wasn't among the seven vying for a spot in the
CCiCap round, NASA officials said.

In addition to its work to spur private spaceflight, NASA is
focusing on developing its own new heavy-lift rocket, called the
Space Launch System, and a space capsule, called Orion, for
exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The agency has the
goal of
exploring a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and traveling on to
Mars by the 2030s.